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A man was shielding his infant son when he shot another man who had just robbed him on the
Hilltop on Monday night, police said.

Kelby Smith, 34, had just gotten out of his car in his brother’s driveway on Crescent Drive
about 8:45 p.m. when a man with a pistol approached and demanded money, police said.

Smith was carrying his 2-month-old son in a car seat at the time. He knelt down in front of his
son to shield him as the robber held the gun to Smith’s head, police said.

While Smith was handing over a small amount of cash, he pulled his gun out of a holster, said
detective Brian Boesch of the Columbus police robbery squad. Smith has a concealed-carry permit,
Boesch said.

The robber fled, police said, but then pointed his gun back at Smith as he ran.

“When I pulled my pistol, he took off running, and I shot, and it hit him,” Smith later told a
911 dispatcher.

The dispatcher asked Smith how he knew the man had been shot.“ ’Cause when I shot, he started
crying, and he fell to the ground,” Smith told the dispatcher.

A short time later, a man matching the description of the robber entered Mount Carmel West
hospital with a gunshot wound. He was taken to surgery and was under police guard last night.

Boesch said police are not releasing the man’s name because he has not been charged in the case.
He said the man was stable and awake yesterday.

“We are waiting for lab tests to come back to see whether we can put him at the scene,” Boesch
said.

Reached at his Far West Side home yesterday, Smith declined to talk about the incident, saying
he was still traumatized by it.

Heather Waters, who heard the gunshot from her house across the street, said the neighborhood on
the Hilltop is fairly quiet and robberies aren’t common.